The Divine Preservation of the Messianic Line:The True Meaning of the Holidays

The
holiday season comes and goes very quickly. Sometimes the hectic
nature of the Christmas season provides us little time to adequately
reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas. What then is the true
meaning of Christmas? The true meaning of the holiday is the
celebration of the superintendence of a sovereign God that allowed
His prophesied redeemer, God the Son, to be born into the world.

A
seldom considered Christmas passage is Rev 12:4b, which says, "And
the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so
that when she gave birth he might devour her child." Here, the
dragon or Satan (Rev 12:9) is pictured as standing before the woman
or Israel (Rev 12:1; Gen 37:9-10) so that he might preempt the birth
of Jesus Christ (Rev 12:5; Ps 2:9; Acts 1:9). This passage represents
the angelic perspective on Herod's attempt to prevent the birth of
the Messiah by murdering all of the male infants in Bethlehem (Matt
2:1-8, 16). Although Matt 2 depicts this event from the human
perspective of Herod's insecurity over his own throne, Rev 12:4b
describes the same event from the point of view of the fallen angelic
realm. In actuality, it was Satan who used Herod's insecurity in an
effort to prevent the birth of the Messiah.

Such a
preemptive effort was not Satan's first attempt to prevent the birth
of the Messiah. All the way back in Gen 3:15, we find the first
biblical, messianic prophecy. It is often referred to as the
protoevangelium. Here,
Satan was put on notice of a coming redeemer. This critical verse
says, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And
between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And
you shall bruise him on the heel." Not only does this verse
predict a coming one who would crush the serpent's (or Satan's) head,
but it also predicts the serpent's bruising of the heel of this
coming redeemer. Much of this bruising occurred through Satan's
attempt to prevent the Messiah from being born. Thus, Rev 12:4b and
Gen 3:15 when taken together furnish an angelic commentary or
perspective on the repeated near extinction and jeopardy experienced
by the messianic lineage as recorded throughout the pages of the Old
Testament.

For
example, because Abel's sacrifice was accepted, Satan figured that
the messianic lineage would come through him. Thus, Satan prompted
Cain to murder Abel (Gen 4; 1 John 3:12). Yet, God circumvented
Satan's effort through the continuation of the messianic line through
the birth of Seth (Gen 4:25-26; 5:1-32). Satan again sought to
prevent the birth of the Messiah through the contamination of
humanity's pre-flood gene pool (Gen 6:1-4) so that the human race
could never give birth to a Messiah who must not only be fully God
but also fully human. God again got around this Satanic attempt
through the preservation of Noah and his sons (Gen 6:9; 1 Pet
3:19-20). Through this line, the Messiah would ultimately come (Gen
9:26; 11:10-26).

In the
days of Moses, Satan again tried to thwart the birth of the Messiah
by enslaving the nation through which the anticipated redeemer would
come from (Exod 1). Yet, God again circumvented Satan's effort
through the Exodus event. The same pattern again repeated itself when
the usurping queen Athaliah sought to exterminate all of the royal
offspring of the house of Judah. Yet, God again thwarted this Satanic
attack through the preservation of baby Joash, the sole surviving
Davidic descendant, in the temple throughout the duration of
Athaliah's rampage (2 Chron 22). This pattern again emerged when
wicked Haman developed a plot to exterminate all the Jews. Yet, God
again circumvented this Satanic effort to preempt the birth of Christ
by sovereignly working through Mordecai and Esther in order to
preserve the Jewish race from annihilation as recorded in the Book of
Esther.

Thus,
Herod's ambition to kill all of the male Bethlehem infants (Matt 2)
is yet another chapter in the ongoing attempt by Satan to preempt the
birth of the Messiah. Once again, God sovereignly intervened by
causing the royal family to flee to Egypt until Herod's death.
Despite these numerous attempts to thwart the Messiah's mission by
preventing His birth, God sovereignly protected the messianic line
thereby allowing the redeemer to be born and eventually fulfill His
earthly mission of paying the world's sin debt. God's faithful
protection of the messianic line leading to the birth of Christ is
what we are to remember and celebrate at Christmas time. During this
holiday season let us continually praise God for how He has worked
faithfully and sovereignly in history so as to allow the redeemer to
come into the world so that He could accomplish His great mission on
humanity's behalf.